


To Slay a Dragon

by WolfVenom



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Death, Fluff and Angst, Shimada Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-07-10 20:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7005130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WolfVenom/pseuds/WolfVenom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lot more people depended on his duty over his well-being. "Rule together or strike him down," they had said. How lonely it became after he sheathed his bloodied sword for the last time that day...</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Slay a Dragon

**Author's Note:**

> You know the drill. Fluff to blood to angst to fluff. Don't worry your little hearts, the ending may be happy; if you pray hard enough.

When you are a mere toddler at three years of age, your mother and father's attention landing on an unwelcome guest is the second worst thing to happen to you. Hanzo left the first place for the untimely disruptive little monster which resulted after his mother's growing stomach.

"Hanzo, my boy. Your little brother is here. His name is Genji," said his father, "it is your duty as well as ours to ensure he becomes as fierce as you." And upon his hands his mother passed him a swaddled ball of peach, it's finger stuck in it's mouth and eyes staring at everything in fright. Hanzo took it with care, but looked down with disgust.

The boy gazed up at his father with disdain, holding up the baby which began to cry at his sibling's rough treatment.

"'Don't like it." He mumbled, as coherent as a three-year old could get. "Too squishy." In his mind he saw it as small, not fit for his father, a man who was strong, big and demanding. His father who wore garments of royalty and stood upon a pedestal men could only dream of kissing the hearth of, mum right by his side.

His mother tutted him, grabbing her baby back and settling back into her make-shift futon, dressed still in hospital gowns and her hair a mess.

When his father ushered him out of the room, with words of how his mother needed rest and they should leave her in peace; the elder looked upon his son with tense eyes.

"Hanzo." He had said. "It is your duty to lead your brother in life. Through thick and thin. I have been blessed with two fierce little dragons to bring the Shimada name honor, never forget that."

Hanzo slept like a rock that night, as his mother passed away, craddling a sobbing baby who wanted nothing but his mama's warmth back, the only thing he knew to be safe in the few hours he had lived.

***

By Hanzo's tenth birthday, Genji was seven years old. Everywhere his older brother went, he was close behind, a small shadow for the growing Shimada leader. Hanzo didn't like the constant attention, but he enjoyed the looks that the grunts gave him when he and his brother strolled past. Respect and even fear. A child holding that much power was just as dangerous as his father.

They were both devils at this age, Genji always backing up Hanzo's lies and Hanzo always teaching his sibling new ways to hide his wrong-doings. They didn't always get along, but when they were both on the same end of an argument they were a troublesome duo against the adults.

When the sakura trees were in bloom and petals covered the ground, Hanzo found himself trying out a new bow his father had bought him. It was small, fit for a beginner, and the arrows were non-lethal. Genji sat on his knees behind him as he practiced, watching with amazement at his brother's skill at such young age.

But when Genji tugged on Hanzo's happi in an attempt to get his attention, Hanzo lost control of the arrow and sent it firing off into the distance. Rage burned through him and he turned, shoving Genji back.

"Look what you did, idiot! You can't do anything right, can you? No wonder mom died, a kid so useless made her sick. Go get my arrow back before I tell dad!" He growled, brushing non-existent germs off his hakama from where he kneed his brother. Hanzo turned around before he could even lay eyes on his brother's face, distraught and on the verge of tears. He did not care for the insult he just inflicted upon Genji just then.

It took the clan two days to find the boy, where he had stashed himself in the far corner of the arcade, paying yen after yen on his game, a little bag of chips by his side. Father had worn himself insane looking for his son and Hanzo wasn't about to fess up about what he had said to Genji the day prior.

Genji just wanted to let Hanzo know that there was a sparrow standing atop his target, and he should let her fly away before firing. Genji rarely showed his face near Hanzo or Shimada castle after that.

***

"Yo, _nii-san_." The drawl came from the one face he would quite enjoy to land a fist in the jaw to. Genji, sixteen years of age and sauntering around Hanamura like he owned the place. Startled, Hanzo had bumped over the _shogi_ board laying haphazardly on the tatami behind him, knocking pieces everywhere. And the hair-dyed teen had the gall to laugh, bent at the spine with a hand on his stomach. Filled with newfound anger, the elder son whipped around to face his younger counterpart, glaring.

" _Kusogaki_!" Came the retort, surely heard from clan members near his room. But his words weren't untrue, however. As ill-mannered a teen could be these days, Genji ranked first.

Genji stuck his tongue out at his brother, pulling down his cheek with a finger and setting up a rude face. The mere act of defiance from his sibling sent Hanzo mad, and he lunged forward to grab his brother's throat. The younger dodged away just in time and flew past his room, darting all around the castle and past guard and the likes, straight into the meeting room.

Straight into father's meeting.

Various yakuza and even mafia from 'round the globe sat at his table, looking up at the sound of the two barging into the hall. Hanzo tumbled after his brother and pinned him to the floor, growling bloody murder and just about ready to bring a fist down when a loud cough shook him from his trance.

Genji had stopped running because of the exact reason Hanzo almost died of embarrassment right there. Father was looking down at his boys with a smile that was neither sinister or adoring, eyes tight and hands stiff. He held up a hand in pardon to his guests before stepping over to his children, pulling both up by their ear and yanking them out of the hall. His green-haired son yelped in complain whilst his dark haired son mumbled and followed willingly, right out the door.

When the death grip on their ears had been released, Genji rubbing the redness away from his own, father turned and glared down at them both, mouth pursed into a tight line.

"Not only do you come unannounced and rudely into my meeting, but you show our guests this immature display of a quarrel?" He spoke calmly, too soft for comfort, and his children both cowared under his gaze.

Hanzo knew his father would not take a 'he started it', and instead opted for lowering his head in shame. Genji huffed and pouted, crossing his arms. "Won't happen again, pops."

The informal address had the eldest Shimada hold a breath, but he couldn't blame his sons. They were his pride, his only joy, no matter how rambunctious. Giving in, he let go of his superiority and drew both of his children to his chest, hugging them close and memorizing their features. They would grow old one day, and he wouldn't be around to see it. His wonderful sons ruling Shimada without him, and he almost felt like weeping.

Both of the brothers felt guilt. Their actions had been rash and at their father's expense. Feeling his onslaught of sorrow they enveloped each other in the same embrace bestowed upon them, a safe place where all three of the Shimada's held onto each other for dear life.

Departed to their rooms for the evening, Hanzo stopped before the _shoji_ to his brother's domain. His pause was not due to internal hesitation, but rather on the other side of the divider he could hear nothing.

And nothing on Genji's end was not good. The usually boisterous playboy with a loud mouth and egocentric tastes was never silent. Reminding himself this, he tapped softly on the divider and reached for the divet in the wood, pulling aside the _shoji_ to reveal a room unnaturally dark.

"Genji?" He called into the shadows. There was a lump on the floor, underneath covers of the futon, and it shifted as its name was called.

"Otouto, are you all right?" Hanzo asked once again.

No words this time either. Instead, the elder sibling stepped into the room and shut the door, padding over and lowering himself to his knees next to the lump. Gingerly, as if courting with a viper, he set his palm down upon the lump and it jerked briefly. As soon as the fright came, it disappeared, and instead the form underneath the plush blankets found imense comfort in the hand upon its shoulder.

"My brother, there is no need to be down about what happened today. It was not your faul-" Hanzo's words were cut off as Genji tossed the blankets off his head, lunging forward and wrapping his arms around his brother's torso, hiding his face into his stomach. Hanzo could then see and feel the shoulders wracked with sobs and he knew something wasn't okay.

"I don't care about what happened today, Hanzo," he wept, "I don't want to live in a world where I need to worry more about how other people think of me than my goddamn _family_." He didn't stop there.

"Mom is dead and dad spends all his time cooped up in meetings and he can't spend time with us anymore. I see it in his eyes, brother, I see the way he looks at us wishing he could have had a better part in our lives but he just can't. And he tells us stories of the dragons but he cannot watch them grow, and I can't live like this.

"I don't want to be saddled with any of this."

Hanzo kept silent while Genji spilled his guts, holding his shoulders and patting his back through the hiccups after his episode. As much as his brother pissed him off, he knew when it was right and when it was wrong to revert to fights.

He thought long and hard about his response. "Genji, father has much on his shoulders. Any parent with that much responsibility would surely abandon their child, but he reared us both as best he could. He loves you dearly and wouldn't want you sad like this. I'm your brother, I won't allow you to be sorrowful in front of father." The slight jest near the end pulled the corners of Genji's mouth upright, just a bit.

In the morning, they were found sprawled on the floor in the youngster's room, snoring softly and out cold.

***

At twenty-eight, Genji was twenty-five.

_"Hanzo, please. Wake up!" Genji sobbed, shaking his brother awake._

_"Father, he- he passed away in his sleep! He left us!" Came the cries, distraught and voice nasal. Such shock ran through the at the time twenty-three year old. Father was gone. And nothing would ever be the same. Because now, it was up to him to raise Shimada._

Hanzo ran his fingers, calloused by bows and arrows, across cracks and breaks in the tatami beneath him, running the floor with streaks of red behind his fingertips.

_Numerous clan members whispered behind his back. The new clan leader, Hanzo Shimada, but never as good as the late Shimada. Never as wise._

There was a solitary arrow left in his sheathe, the only one left unstained by carmine.

_"Together, master, you raise a clan no one dare defy! The Shimada brothers could reign over the district together. But you must put your little brother in his place."_

_"Or put him down."_

His face was wet, whether it was blood sweat or tears, he did not know. Hair stuck to his forehead and the tie which held it in a ponytail at the back was no where to be found.

_When confronted, the young one did nothing. He spat up in his brother's face and paced, arguing with raising volume in his voice. No grunt dare show their face in the hall of the castle as the fighting of the two great dragons sounded throughout Hanamura itself._

There was broken antiques and ruined furniture around the two forms, ripped up architecture and debris scattered the once beautiful palace.

_The sword was drawn and both stood headlock, the clash of steel ringing throughout their ears. Genji pleaded stop, to stop his madness, that he was his brother. But with a sense of duty Hanzo did not dare cease his cause. Near the end, his brother lay broken, stomach slashed open and his right arm laying stiff feet away from his body. He was sobbing, choking on blood and his shoulder embedded into the ground by an arrow, the broken sword of his brother impaled into his thigh. The litter of intestines and gore behind him painted a picture as wondrous as the painting adorning the wall of the castle._

The separate shack outside the shrine burned yellow in Hanzo's eyes, heat dancing across his defiled skin and he looked down at his hands with nary an emotion. He could feel nothing, however. With the blood on his hands his mind had left with, shock consuming all. The flames burned bright as the building crackled and caved in on itself, on Genji-

_"B-brother, please. Why..." Arrows stuck from his crumpled body and he looked up with his working eye at his once loved brother, now staring him down with hate as he tossed the practice bow aside, right into the beginning blaze. Fire did not effect him, nor did the deep wounds marring his skin and the empty feeling in his gut where his organs used to be nestled. What hurt far more was his chest, hollow and drowning at the same time as his dear brother left him to char with the rest of the temple._

The screaming masked the night as the dragon's cry filled the earth with death, a plea for help when none could come.

_The bow burned with his brother's corpse and Hanzo realized not only after he had cried his throat raw that he had made a mistake. He left Hanamura to burn, leaving his regrets behind._

" _...He struck down his brother, who fell to earth, shattering the lands..."_ Came his father's voice, somewhere in the back of his mind.

***

"Genji, I can sense something is troubling you. Care to enlighten your teacher?" Zenyatta's calm voice flits through his concentration. Well, more like daydream. The two sat on the wooden balconey just outside Genji's room, the winter Nepal air freezing already chilled metal but it did nothing to sway any omnic. Meditation was meant to clear the mind, and when your body was so cold it couldn't think was when your calm was at its peak.

Genji let his head droop in shame.

"No, master. I am sorry for disturbing you, just... The past is on my mind. Do not concern yourself." The cyborg replied, softly. He did not want to let Zenyatta down, the kindest of all beings he has ever met. The only one he trusts with his life and more. Years ago, he would've thought his brother would hold that title.

But he found more compassion in gentle yet cold steel than he did the beating heart of his brother.

Zenyatta hummed, turning back to face the vast expanse of the mountain valleys before them. His student's scarf flapping in the breeze was the only sound between either of them, other than Genji's breathing. His lungs were still human.

The omnic liked to remind Genji that all of him was human. There was no border between human and metal. A soul is a life, not the flesh adhearing to one and not the other. He may not be pale coloured anymore, but his heart beat blood and his mind ruled it's own.

The shambali let his gaze drift to the skies. "Genji, your past troubles you, yet peace cannot be reached without acceptance. You must face your mistakes and learn to make them apart of yourself, not something to hide."

Student looked upon master who looked upon clouds, the vast expanse of freedom. In his mind, Genji knew what he spoke was true. Wise, from an omnic of twenty years.

He had come to terms with the fact Zenyatta will not grow as he does. Zenyatta will be left behind when he leaves. Maybe he should come to terms with the fact that he has forgiven himself and his brother as well.

He wasn't getting any younger, at thirty-three.

"I have come to terms with what I am, and have forgiven you. Now, you must forgive yourself."

***

You don't know what you have until it's gone.

They lay on opposite sides yet again, not afraid to fight one another but terrified of the damage it causes. Zenyatta is crumpled on the ground, anger in his voice which surprises everyone. He casts a single orb to Zarya before he collapses, sparks flying from his wounds. He would make it, Mercy was there. Genji still felt guilt ruin him.

Hanzo still has his fingers taut arround the arrow, aiming for his enemy. The woman with her helmet down like an eagle, soaring above the large masked man below her. He could take her out with one arrow.

But before he loosed the arrow he felt the earth rumble, the enemy advancing upon his old home shrine and the arrow is swung loose, as the lady of eagle announces for all to hear--

" _Rocket barrage, incoming_!"

The bell has fallen from the ceiling and the shrine collapses. McCree lays pinned under debris, unmoving, and D. Va pulls herself out of her meka, groaning in pain as the machine sparks out of life and prepares self destruct.

He wonders why he stands true, uninjured. He wonders until the soft green glow from before his eyes fades out and the beautiful glimmering dragon fades with a pained screech, its spirit dead.

And the body beneath it just as bloody as the serpent.

His blood was red, not green, not oil, not robotic. He remembers it being exactly how it was, and in his mind he sees--

\-- _stomach slashed open and his right arm laying stiff feet away from his body_ \--

The metal stays immobile, twisted at all the wrong angles.

\-- _sobbing, choking on blood and his shoulder embedded into the ground by an arrow_ \--

For the second time, Genji dies by his hand yet again. Thrown in the way trying to protect his older brother from the blast and instead fell by a stray arrow. Mercy was no where to be found.

 _"I don't want to live in a world where I need to worry more about how other people think of me than my goddamn_ family."

Words fill Hanzo's mind and he remembers and he realizes how much pain he had caused his baby brother. He thinks, watching as the enemy team scream for their medic and rush over to help their teammate, his own brother of all of them not moving to assist at all, he wanted to get over his own self-hatred for just long enough to hug his brother one last time. His little baby brother whom he loved with his heart.

Hanzo had betrayed his brother and no matter how much he tried to teach him in youth to never trust anyone, to keep your emotions locked away, he had let his instinct ruin him, like the child who passed out yen to the homeless on the streets at age ten.

He slayed the dragon once, and he did it again. And he allows himself to cry, one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> I left it up to you if you wanted to have a support hero save Genji or let him die for the last time. Non-beta'd and really rushed, alert me of any mistakes or things you dislike.


End file.
